In 2016 Galileo officially moved from a testing phase to the provision of operational services. Today, anyone with a Galileo-enabled device can use its signals for positioning, navigation and timing. Indeed, most receivers, chipsets and modules entering the market are Galileo compatible.
In addition, Galileo contributes to the international Cospas-Sarsat - a global Search and Rescue (SAR) system - by providing the speed and accuracy benefits of the Galileo constellation in Medium Earth Orbit.
This capacity, named MEOSAR, allows to timely and accurately locate distress beacons all around the world, by processing their alert signals and dispatching the resulting data to relevant SAR authorities. Galileo is currently by far the biggest contributor to Cospas-Sarsat in terms of space assets. In 2020, Galileo introduced a breakthrough in SAR operations with the declaration of the Return Link Service (RLS), which provides a confirmation and reassurance to people in distress that their call for help has been received and their position computed.
The increase in the use of Galileo goes hand in hand with the wide range of Galileo-enabled devices and services that are continually appearing on the market. The range of applications for Galileo is enormous, covering both the public and private sectors and spanning many market segments with considerable benefits.
Galileo’s uptake is boosted thanks to its unique portfolio of high-performance services offered worldwide, the High Accuracy Service for high accuracy positioning, and the newest launched being the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication service, providing for the first time in GNSS a global open access authentication service.
More than 4 billion users are already benefitting from Galileo.
In the Road&Automotive segment, since 2018 Galileo is found in every new type-approved vehicle sold in Europe, thereby enabling the eCall emergency response system. Furthermore, for commercial vehicles over 3.5 tons affected by the EU Mobility Package, the introduction of OSNMA-enabled smart tachographs becomes mandatory 5 months after the OSNMA Initial service declaration date (i.e., from 24/12/2025).
Click here to find out if your device is Galileo-Enabled.